


Pieces

by ArcticLucie



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, Good Guy Forrest Long, Hopeful Ending, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Malex Week 2020, Post Season 2 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:30:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25290136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcticLucie/pseuds/ArcticLucie
Summary: Michael walked out before Alex had finished his song and it broke his heart a little, but he walked back in in time to see him kiss Forrest, and that broke it even more.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 18
Kudos: 89





	Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> For Malex week day 3: "I can explain."
> 
> This takes place right after the Forrest kiss.

Alex didn’t know why he did it, why he kissed Forrest. Maybe because he was there and willing. Maybe because Alex needed to feel something other than the constant ache of longing in his chest made deeper when he looked up and realized Michael had left, that he hadn’t bothered to listen to the rest of it, to the best of it. So maybe he just needed the distraction.

They pulled away, and he noticed Forrest stiffen as he looked over his shoulder. Alex followed his gaze as he craned his neck, eyes catching Michael’s as he clenched his jaw. They both watched him turn around and walk out the door before he looked back to Forrest, not knowing what to do or say, his mind racing as it tried to make sense of Michael’s return. Of what that meant.

But Forrest gave him a weak smile and said, “Go.”

“What? No, I like you,” Alex said, the hand on Forrest’s elbow tightening in defiance. “Me and Guerin, that’s in the past.”

“And I like you too, but I don’t think it is, Alex. You don’t write a song like that, sing it like you did if it’s over.”

“Forrest?” he pleaded, but he couldn’t deny it. Any of it. Michael and him, no matter how many times they’d tried to sever their connection, no matter how hard they’d tried to run from it, it always caught up to them. Always. The past, it never stayed there. And Alex had lied through his teeth when he’d said it was a long time ago. Wishful thinking or not, Forest had seen right through him.

“Hey, it’s okay. You don’t put a bandaid on a broken bone. You set it and let it heal. I just don’t wanna be the bandaid.”

“I’m sorry,” Alex said as he finally let Forest go.

“Me too… now go.”

Alex gave him one last sympathetic frown and walked away. Better to break things off now before they got too complicated, before he’d dragged Forrest down into their mess. Maybe Alex could’ve loved him in another lifetime, but he’d already met the love of this one. And he was so tired of running from that truth, of letting the voices in his head that sounded just like his father poison everything they had.

He wouldn’t allow it anymore. Jesse Manes had taken so much from them, but they had buried him, and maybe now they could bury all the tragedies of their past right alongside him. He wanted to try to anyway. He could only hope Michael would help him move the bodies.

“Guerin?” he hollered across the parking lot once he’d spotted him, long and lean, ethereal bathed in the light of a street lamp.

Michael’s shoulder slumped as he froze. “Go back inside, Alex.”

“I can explain.”

“Nothing to explain.”

“Yes, there is,” Alex said as he grabbed Michael’s arm. Michael spun around and twisted out of Alex’s grip, the pained expression on his face ripping Alex’s heart out. “Look, I know you saw us and I know you’re mad that I kissed him.”

Michael scoffed and shook his head. “How could I ever be mad at you for being happy?”

“But that’s just it, Michael. I’m not. I’m, how could I ever be happy without you?”

“I don’t know if  _ I _ can make you happy, Alex.”

“You can and you have. You’re really the only one who does. Ever since we were seventeen. And yeah, we’ve had a tough road up to now. God, we’ve been through so much. But I gave my heart away to you a long time ago, and I know you’re never gonna give it back. You can’t; the pieces, they wanna be together.”

Michael’s breath faltered, and Alex took the opportunity to take a step closer.

“So maybe we’ve just been fooling ourselves thinking we could find something better out there with someone else when what we should be doing is fixing all the things my dad broke, all the pieces he tried to steal from us.”

“Alex,” he said, like a prayer, like he didn’t dare let hope creep into it.

“I’m not saying we should rush into anything, but I just need you to know I still believe we’ll end up together. Even after everything, or maybe because of it.”

“So do I.”

“Then can we both stop running from it?”

Michael bit his lip and nodded, and Alex’s heart broke a little more as he watched a single tear trickle down his cheek. They both closed their eyes, and Alex swayed into his gravity, their foreheads finding each other in the dark. They stayed like that for a long while, sharing the same breath, letting themselves be grounded in the moment.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Confessions ten years in the making, the truth finally spoken like a lifted curse, had all the little cracks in Alex’s heart stitching back together. They would make it work this time. They would do it right.

Michael tilted his head and moved in to kiss him, but Alex pulled away.

“I just need some time.”

The hopeful smile on Michael’s lips had him regretting that, but he refused to make the same mistakes of their past. They both had work to do, and he knew in the end it would be well worth the wait. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” Michael promised, and Alex believed him.

Tonight was not their time, but they parted ways knowing that soon it would be. And for now, that was enough.


End file.
